Nesting eagles return to neighbourhood

By Fred Davies
May 6^th, 2008

The eagles are back.

Regular readers of The News may recall a story last December relating the tale of winds that tore down a portion of tree and an eagle nest within it near Columbia Beach.

An adjacent homeowner was so enamored with his avian neighbours he installed a video camera trained on the tree to beam pictures of the birds and their young chicks onto the screen of his big screen television.

Fast forward a few months and that same man, Howard McClelland, was happily barbecuing hot dogs Saturday to give away to a throng of curious onlookers along Columbia Drive - there to peer through available telescopes at the birds' new nest high atop a Douglas fir just south of Juan de Fuca Blvd.

"I'm very pleased the birds are still in the neighbourhood,"said McClelland.

The grassroots event organized by The Friends of French Creek Conservation Society, was attended by the FFCCS, members of the area residents association and many more from the neighbourhood, curious to see what the hullabaloo was about.

"I thought we should do something to celebrate and this is what transpired,"said FFCCS society past-president Robin Robinson of the brief but festive get together that lasted roughly an hour.

While chicks couldn't be seen, one eagle was perched nearby looking on and a co-ordinator for the area's wildlife tree monitoring program said there's evidence the adults are feeding young ones in the newly-built nest.

"One adult had a food item in his beak which is obviously indicative of chicks,"said Sandra Gray, who noted the fir in question has already been added to a wildlife tree atlas intended as reference for regional planners and local governments in hopes of avoiding any disruption from development.

"That's the whole idea,"said Gray, "not all land owners are 100 per cent co-operative."




Original Source:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_central/parksville_qualicumbeachnews/news/18668254.html